The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical SystemsNuttall, Zelia
Religion
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems
The foregoing data enlighten us as to the practical value of a sternly
enforced system of division and differentiation for the control of the
population, and of clay images of persons for statistical purposes. We
have seen that, during many centuries, the energy of the rulers was
directed towards making groups of people as distinct and different from
each other as possible. They were rigidly kept apart and, in all
assemblages, they occupied separate positions, in a fixed order of
relation to each other. “All the people of Cuzco came out according to
their tribes and lineages ... and assembling in the great square ... sat
down on their benches, each man according to the rank he held, the
Hanan-Cuzco on one side and the Hurin-Cuzco on the other” (Molina ed.
Hakluyt, p. 26). Beside this dual division of the entire population, under
the separate rulerships of the Inca and Coya, who were linked together,
however, in a sacred and indissoluble union and respectively represented
Heaven and Earth, let us study the executive administration of the
religious and civil governments.
Two sets, each consisting of four rulers, next in rank to the Inca and
Coya, are described: Each quarter or Suyu was ruled over by a “viceroy,”
or “Inca governor,” entitled tucuyricoc=“he who sees all,” or Capac. In
the days of the Inca Huayna Capac the names of the four “viceroys” are
recorded as having been Capac=Achachic, Capac=Larico, Capac=Yochi,
Capac=Hualcaya. These were obviously members of the Inca family and next
in rank to the Inca, who presided as supreme pontiff over the religious
government. The civil and tribal administration was executed by four
Curacas, each of which had charge of 10,000 persons belonging to the
ayllus=tribes or lineages. The titles of these four Curacas are recorded
as: Hunu-Camayu or Camayoc, Huaronca-Camayu or Camayoc, Pachaca-Camayu or
Camayoc, Chunca-Camayu or Camayoc. As their titles show, they were the
chief accountants or recorders of statistics, which were recorded by means
of the quippus. Under them, in regular order there were officers, who
respectively had charge of 500, 100, 50 or 10 individuals. In the latter
instance it is expressly stated that it was always one man out of the ten
who governed and rendered account of the remaining nine. The four chief
recorders dwelt in Cuzco but “left it every year and returned in February
to make their report ... bringing with them the tribute of the whole
empire. They also reported upon the administration every year recording
the births and deaths that had occurred among men and flocks, the yield of
crops and all other details, with great minuteness” (Polo de Ondegardo).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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